Thinking once again about the story beats between Grace Ashcroft & Christine Daae each meeting their narrative's monstrous men and how it's uncannily similar. Victor is the more violent & forceful one as his story's Villain with very understandably different reactions coming from Grace.
Victor's introduction in the Wrenwood Hotel scene mirrors (heh) "The Mirror" song where Phantom reveals himself through, well, a dressing room mirror (creepy but dramatic AF). Following this, Grace & Victor's narrative movements reflect Christine & Phantom's throughout "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night" songs.
The tense moment Victor puts his hand on Grace to physically subdue her mirrors the tense moment Christine makes contact with the Phantom's extended hand through the secret door. In very different contexts, these pivotal physical moments trigger the sequences where these men transport their women to their mysterious lairs.
I find it pitiful but kinda funny that Grace is knocked TF out, carried like a sack of potatoes, and getting rained on during what WOULD be the beginning of the "the POTO" song, during which Christine is awake & entranced while Phantom lures her through the opera house's catacombs. Phantom's duet parts would be happening while Victor is silently carrying Grace, so I just imagine Victor monologuing to Grace in his head, his own version of "Sing once again with me, our strange duet, my power over you, grows stonger yet". Funny how Grace is literally positioned over Victor's shoulder to glance behind him to pair with Phantom's line "and though you turn from me to glance behind"🤣 If Victor had his motorcycle parked offscreen as the means to get Grace to Rhodes Hill (cool, but isn't as funny or practical as him just walking the whole way there), the little boat Phantom rows in the catacomb's lake could mirror that. Two mysterious men with sick rides 😂
Now here's where the similarities become more shuffled around out of order. The Office Scene is much like the next scene, "Music of the Night", where Phantom introduces his sanctuary, shares his goals, and explains the protagonist's grand importance. Christine DOES pass out from fainting at the END of this song when she sees a mannequin replica of herself, and Phantom carries her to a beautifully ornate bed so she can sleep peacefully. Twistedly, this is like Victor, offscreen, carrying a passed-out Grace to the examination/inversion table BEFORE the Office Scene. Though Grace does NOT have it as "nice" or comfy as Christine when she wakes up 😅 No ambient music, no pillows, NOTHING.
The whole time, Christine is wide-eyed with awe & curiosity while Grace is wide-eyed with fear & confusion. Then, "Stranger Than You Dreamt It" happens, after Christine sneakily removes Phantom's mask without his permission. I think it's really funny that Victor's line "Would you like to see what's hidden UNDER the hood?" mirrors this EXACT moment in the pacing of the POTO narrative. Then cue the men's angry emotional outbursts and the women running away and/or cowering in fear🥺
Much later in POTO, "Wandering Child" mirrors the aftermath of the water treatment plant levels. While Christine visits her father's crypt to walk around and grieve in the graveyard, Grace is similarly grieving the fresh loss of losing Emily and walking aimlessly. Both Phantom & Victor are sneakily waiting/hiding until the perfect moment strikes to softly, gently manipulate their women in their heavy moments of vulnerability toward a sense of cathartic belonging/purpose (found in the men, or the men's own goals, of course). I am in awe of the visuals being so similar between the scene in the POTO 2004 film and that RE9 scene, how the electric & crypt doors both slowly open to bathe the protagonists in warm inviting light. Though, hilariously, this cross-symbolism would imply that Zeno waiting on the other side of the door is Grace's "father" 🤣 (instead of the Phantom hiding in the crypt to manipulatively pose as the voice of Christine's father)
